Felix Castro is pictured outside his house. Arizona. El Mirage and MCDOT have planned a major expansion of Thunderbird Road, and some homes and businesses will have to be taken out. Stacie Scott/The Republic

Just about every community that touches the northern portion of El Mirage Road has a plan for it— some are under way, others are starting soon and still more remain visions for the future.

And as the cities and Maricopa County begin to work on the road, the residents and businesses near it will have to accommodate changes.

El Mirage recently notified five homeowners and three business owners that it plans to relocate them as part of a project to widen and improve Thunderbird Road, which carries much of the city's traffic from El Mirage to Primrose Street and on to Grand Avenue.

The news elicited mixed reactions. And although city officials support the project, some are wary about forcing homeowners out.

Residents asked to move

Elsa Marrufo, Louisa Bermea and Felix Castro recently learned their homes lie in the way of the project.

It's a bittersweet prospect for the longtime residents.

"She doesn't want to sell the house," said Nydia Marrufo, who translated her mother Elsa's Spanish. "It's going to be hard. She'll have to move to a different place and have different neighbors. It's sad."

Elsa Marrufo, 67, and her husband, Francisco, now deceased, raised some of their 13 children in the small, nearly 70-year-old house northeast of El Mirage and Thunderbird roads, her daughter said.

Her neighbor Castro has a different take, however.

He said he will gladly sell the city his house. Soured on the neighborhood after some break-ins, Castro said he hopes to move his belongings and his Chihuahuas to Peoria or Youngtown.

"Right now, it is a good idea for me to move," said Castro, 67. "I'm not sad. I would miss it because I've lived here so long."

Some El Mirage homeowners will have to be relocated to make way for Thunderbird Road improvements.
Leslie Wright/The Republic

City plans to add 'charm'

The neighbors live in some of the 81 homes and businesses that will have to yield territory or grant easements for a wider Thunderbird.

Consultants estimate the city will have to relocate the homeowners and businesses, including La Guadalupana Mexican restaurant.

The city designed the project to give the area more charm and highlight some of the downtown's oldest properties, which date to at least the 1920s.

Utilities will dive underground, new lighting will brighten the night, sidewalks will widen, bike lanes and benches will appear, and the parking lots of the minimarts and businesses that line Thunderbird will move out of sight.

El Mirage Mayor Lana Mook said the city has little choice if it wants to attract new business and industry.

She recounted speaking to large landowners just after voters elected her to her post in 2010. They told her they needed a better road and transportation system before they could hope to develop their land, she said.

"We have to do it in order for us to be sustainable — to attract jobs and light industrial," Mook said. "Our residential areas are built out, and we're landlocked."

Under an agreement with the Maricopa Association of Governments, the regional planning agency, El Mirage will pay just more than $6 million of the estimated $52 million road project.

Maricopa County will pay about $6 million, and the association's Arterial Life Cycle Program, funded by the county's half-cent sales tax, will cover the rest.

The time line for the Thunderbird Road project, which runs from about 127th Avenue to El Frio Street, is fluid, said El Mirage City Manager Spencer Isom.

Engineering and design work is complete. City officials expect the acquisition of rights-of-way and property to take at least another year. Only then will workers begin the yearlong construction phase.

In February, the El Mirage City Council hired Phoenix-based consultant Tierra Right of Way for $465,652 to negotiate the purchase of rights-of-way and, in a few cases, of entire lots.

The consultant has yet to make the initial offers to landowners. Negotiations will follow and the city may have to resort to eminent domain — the compensated taking of private property for public use — if negotiations fail to result in a settlement.

Some residents and council members said they support the project but would balk at using condemnation procedures against a property owner's will.

"The project is a good project," Councilman Jim McPhetres said. "I support it wholeheartedly, with the exception of eminent domain. I don't want to displace anybody who doesn't want to be displaced."

Arizona League of Cities and Towns legal counsel William Bock told El Mirage council members that state and federal laws require the city to relocate residents and assist them in finding property of at least equal value.

The homes, however, are small, old and do not carry much assessed value.

The Maricopa County Assessor's Office put a full cash value of just $14,200 on Marrufo's home, for example.

"These houses may not be aesthetically pretty, but that home has a family and a history there," McPhetres said.

'Road of significance'

The northern portion of El Mirage Road starts at Indian School road and ends in downtown El Mirage. It briefly becomes other roads until it jumps Grand Avenue at Primrose and turns into Thompson Ranch Road. El Miragethen resumes its name and its vertical charge through Surprise and Maricopa County.

The Thunderbird Road revamp is only one phase of the El Mirage Road project.

El Mirage and the Maricopa County Department of Transportation will have various projects on the road from the city's southern boundary at Northern Avenue to the Grand Avenue frontage road.

The Maricopa Association of Governments considers El Mirage to be a "road of regional significance" because it is the only continuous road that runs from north to south in the West Valley, county transportation department spokeswoman Roberta Bonaski said.

Eventually, it will run from the Northern Parkway to Loop 303 near Peoria and beyond.

The El Mirage Road projects

The Maricopa County Department of Transportation is working with El Mirage and Surprise on upcoming projects to improve north El Mirage Road. Some of the phases include:

Northern Avenue to Peoria Avenue: This will widen El Mirage to seven lanes, three travel lanes in each direction with a combination of raised and street-level medians. Workers will install curbs, gutters, bike lanes and storm systems and improve intersections by building left- and right-turn lanes.

Work will begin in the fall.

Peoria Avenue to Cactus Road: El Mirage will have two travel lanes in each direction with a continuous center lane for left turns. This phase also includes new curbs and gutters, bike lanes and improved intersections.

El Mirage has not set a start date for construction.

Picerne Drive to Bell Road: Maricopa County is constructing a new intersection at Bell and El Mirage roads in Surprise. The project includes new traffic signals, street lighting, curbs, gutters and sidewalks.